Facilitating the Use of Selectable Elements on Touch Screen

ABSTRACT

When the user touches a touch selectable element, the appearance of the computer recognized selected element may be changed so that the user can confirm that the element is, in fact, the element the user intended to select. If it is not, in some embodiments, the user can slide the user&#39;s finger to the correct element and, again, that element may be modified in a way to indicate to the user which element has now been selected. When the user removes the user&#39;s finger from the touch selectable element, in some embodiments, the element is then selected. Also, the user, in some embodiments, can touch blank areas of the display screen to reveal which elements on the display screen are touch selectable elements.

BACKGROUND

This relates generally to touch screens.

Touch screens allow the user to provide inputs to a computer system bymerely touching the screen. With conventional touch screens and,particularly, those associated with mobile devices, the screen may berelatively small. This means that the display of text or other symbolson the screen may be relatively small compared to the size of the user'sfinger. Thus, the user may touch a symbol on a screen in order toprovide an input, but the user's finger may completely overlie the itembeing touched. As a result, the user may actually select a differentsymbol, also under the user's finger, than the one the user intended toselect. This results in consumer confusion and dissatisfaction withsmall touch screens.

Another problem with touch screens is that clickable links are notgenerally indicated by any kind of graphical symbol. Thus, the user musttouch a link in order to determine if, in fact, it is a clickable link.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic depiction of one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged depiction of a portion of a touch screen displayin accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged depiction of a portion of a touch screen displaycorresponding to that shown in FIG. 2 after the user has selected atouch activateable link on the display screen using the user's finger;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged depiction of a portion of a touch screen displayin accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged depiction of a touch screen display portion shownin FIG. 4 after the user has touched a region of the screen proximate tothe region shown in FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart for one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a flow chart for another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with some embodiments, the appearance of a touchselectable element on a touch screen may be changed when the userpositions the user's finger over the element. For example, the elementmay be enlarged so that the user knows which element the computerunderstands has been selected. This may reduce the number of inadvertentselections in some embodiments. In some embodiments, if the indicatedelement is not the one the user intended to select, the user can simplyslide the user's finger over to center over the desired element. Then,when the user lifts the user's finger from the screen, in oneembodiment, the underlying element is then actually selected.

In some embodiments, finger touch commands can be understood to be arequest to indicate which elements of a plurality of elements displayedon the screen are actually hot clickable or hot selectable elements. Forexample, when the user presses a particular area on the screen, all theclickable elements may have their appearance modified in one way oranother.

Referring to FIG. 1, a processor-based system 10 may be any device thatincludes a touch screen display. This may include non-portable wireddevices, such as desktop computers, as well as portable devices,including tablets, laptop computers, mobile Internet devices, cellulartelephones, Smart phones, and entertainment devices, to give a fewexamples.

The processor-based system 10 may include a processor implementing alayout engine 14. The layout engine 14 may receive inputs from a browseruser interface 12. The layout engine may render screen outputs to atouch screen 16. The layout engine 14 may be coupled to a storage device18, which may store software implemented sequences 20 and 22, in someembodiments of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention, the touch screen 16 may include a display that includes theportion 24. The portion 24 may include a touch selectable element 26,such as a button, icon, or text. As used herein, a touch selectableelement is any textural, numeric, or graphical display that may betouched with a finger, a cursor, or a stylus, to perform a specifiedfunction. When the user touches the element 26, the user's finger may belarge enough, relative to the text size, that the user cannot see theelement under the user's finger and may thereby inadvertently operateother elements that are nearby.

To overcome this problem, in some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 3, whenthe user's finger F touches the element 26, in FIG. 2, the size of theelement may be increased, as indicated in FIG. 3, so that the user canbe sure that the user is clicking the right element. If the userrealizes the user is actually on the wrong element, the user can simplyslide the user's finger to hit the right element, which will then beenlarged as well. Once the user's finger is on the intended element,when the user lifts the user's finger, in one embodiment, the element isselected and activated. Other changes in the depiction of the element,to indicate what element was selected, may also be used in addition to,or in place of, increasing its size. Examples include highlighting theelement, moving the element so the material covered by the user's fingeris displayed above the user's finger and is, therefore, readable, orproviding an arrow indicating the element that is selected on thedisplay screen. Actions other than lifting the finger may be recognized,including pressing a select button, touching a screen area associatedwith a select input, a double tap on the highlighted link or any otheraction, including gestures that indicate element selections.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, aportion 24 of the display screen 16 may include a display of fourelements, labeled links 1-4, in FIG. 4. When the user positions theuser's finger F on the touch screen 16 adjacent the links 1-4, as shownin FIG. 5, the clickable links of a group associated with the positiontouch may be displayed. For example, when the user positions his fingerin a region to the left of a row of clickable links, all the links inthat row (i.e. link 2 and link 4) may be activated to indicate that theyare clickable.

Thus, a star or asterisk 26 may appear through the links, the links maybe highlighted or may be enlarged to indicate that the text adjacent theuser's finger is actually a clickable link that can be selected by theuser, as described above. In this way, clickable links may be revealedon touch screens to allow user identification of what is and is not aclickable link. In some embodiments, a region on the screen may beprovided so that when the user touches that region, all the clickablelinks on the display are automatically indicated.

Referring to FIG. 6, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention, a sequence 20 may be implemented in hardware, software, orfirmware. In software and firmware embodiments, a sequence of computerreadable instructions may be stored on a non-transitory computerreadable medium, such as a magnetic, optical, or semiconductor memory.For example, the sequence 20 in software and firmware embodiments may bestored on the storage 18, shown in FIG. 1, in one embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 6, the sequence begins, in one embodiment, when thebrowser user interface 12 (FIG. 1) gets a button press event and passesit to the layout engine 14 (FIG. 1), as indicated in block 30. Then thelayout engine dispatches the event to the document object model (DOM)dispatcher, as indicated in block 32. A check at diamond 34 determineswhether the targeted DOM element is clickable. If not, a normal processpath is followed, as indicated in block 36.

Otherwise, the style attributes of the targeted DOM element may bemodified, as indicated in block 38. This is also illustrated in FIG. 3,in accordance with one embodiment. The layout engine lays out andrenders the modified attributes to the screen, as indicated in block 40.

Then, a check at diamond 42 determines whether there has been a buttonunpress event, for example, by lifting the user's finger or sliding theuser's finger. If the user has slid the user's finger, as determined indiamond 44, the flow iterates back to block 38, recognizing that theuser has changed his or her mind about selecting the element that waspreviously selected, perhaps because the user had inadvertently placedhis or her finger over the wrong element and the user recognized theerror when the element was enlarged, in accordance with one embodimentof the present invention.

Otherwise, if a slide is not detected, then a button unpress command canbe understood. In other words, in one embodiment of the presentinvention, the touching simply indicates the user's preliminaryselection and the lifting of the user's finger indicates acceptance ofthat selection after enlargement of the selected element, in someembodiments of the present invention. As a result, lifting the user'sfinger in a way other than sliding the finger may be recognized asreceiving a user's selection, indicated in block 46. Other gesturalcommands could also be used.

Moving now to FIG. 7, a sequence 22 may indicated to the user whereclickable elements are on a touch screen. The sequence 22 may beimplemented in software, hardware, or firmware. In software and firmwarebased embodiments, the sequence may be implemented by computer readableinstructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, suchas a semiconductor, optical, or magnetic storage. In one embodiment, thesequence 22 may be stored on the storage 18 in FIG. 1.

The sequence 22 begins by receiving a gestural command, as indicated indiamond 50. The various gestural commands may be used. For example, asweeping hard gesture across the entire display may be understood as arequest to indicate which elements are clickable. Likewise, touching ablank region on the display may be understood to be a request toindicate which regions are hot clickable. If a gestural command isreceived, then the hot clickable links may be indicated by anappropriate visual indication on the display screen, includinghighlighting or magnifying the clickable elements or adding icons inassociation with those clickable elements, as indicated in block 52.

If no gestural command was received or the hot clickable links havealready been indicated, a check at diamond 54 determines whether therehas been a margin tap. In one embodiment, a gestural command, such as amargin tap adjacent a series of clickable elements, may be understood toselect a group of adjacent clickable elements. The group may be, in someembodiments, a row of clickable elements adjacent the blank regiontapped or a column of clickable elements, to give two examples, adjacentthe region tapped. In such case, the entire group of clickable links maybe indicated in the same fashion described above in connection withblock 52 or as indicated in block 56.

References throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneimplementation encompassed within the present invention. Thus,appearances of the phrase “one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” are notnecessarily referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, theparticular features, structures, or characteristics may be instituted inother suitable forms other than the particular embodiment illustratedand all such forms may be encompassed within the claims of the presentapplication.

While the present invention has been described with respect to a limitednumber of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerousmodifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appendedclaims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within thetrue spirit and scope of this present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: automatically altering theappearance of a touch selectable element on a touch screen in responseto touch selection; providing the user with an indication of whatelement was selected; and in response to a separate action after touchselection, activating a function associated with the touch selectableelement.
 2. The method of claim 1 including enlarging the appearance ofa touch selectable element in response to touch selection.
 3. The methodof claim 1 including detecting whether the user slides the user's fingerfrom the finger selectable element.
 4. The method of claim 3 includingdeselecting a first touch selectable element in response to the fingersliding on the touch screen and changing the appearance of a secondtouch selectable element in response thereto.
 5. The method of claim 4including recognizing a user selection of the touch selectable elementwhen the user removes the finger from the element instead of sliding thefinger to another element.
 6. The method of claim 5 includingindicating, in response to a touch selection, which elements displayedon a touch screen are touch selectable elements.
 7. The method of claim6 including receiving a touch selection in a region free of touchselectable elements to indicate a request to identify touch selectableelements.
 8. The method of claim 6 including, in response to a selectionof a blank region of the display screen, changing the appearance of agroup of touch selectable elements, said group including less than allthe touch selectable elements on the screen.
 9. A non-transitorycomputer readable medium storing instructions executed by a computer to:in response to contact on a touch screen, provide an indication of whattouch selectable element is depicted where the screen was contacted; andin response to a change in contact after contacting the touch screen,activate a function associated with the element.
 10. The medium of claim9 further storing instructions to enlarge a depiction of the element inresponse to contact.
 11. The medium of claim 9 further storinginstructions to activate the function associated with the element inresponse to the user removing contact from the touch screen.
 12. Themedium of claim 9 further storing instructions to enable touchactivation of an indication of which elements on a touch screen haveselectable links.
 13. The medium of claim 12 further storinginstructions to provide the indication of selectable links in responseto selection of a blank area on the touch screen.
 14. The medium ofclaim 13 further storing instructions to indicate touch selectableelements to a group of touch selectable elements in response to touchselection of a blank area, wherein the group is less than all of thetouch selectable elements.
 15. The medium of claim 14 includingselecting a row of touch selectable elements in response to contact witha blank area of the screen.
 16. The medium of claim 9 further storinginstructions to detect sliding motion on the screen and, in response todetection of sliding motion, deactivate the indication for a first touchselectable element and activate a display in association with a secondtouch selectable element.
 17. The medium of claim 16 further storinginstructions to activate a display associated with the second touchselectable element to indicate which has been touched.
 18. Aprocessor-based device comprising: a processor; and a touch panelcoupled to said processor, said processor to alter the appearance of atouch selectable element in response to initial touch selection and aresponse to a subsequent user action, select a function associated withthe touch selectable element.
 19. The device of claim 18, said processorto enlarge a touch selectable element when initially touched.
 20. Thedevice of claim 19 including detecting when the user slides the user'sfinger from one touch selectable element to another touch selectableelement.
 21. The device of claim 20 including, in response to detectinga change from touching a first touch selectable element to a secondtouch selectable element, said processor to return the appearance of thefirst touch selectable element to its original appearance and to modifythe appearance of the second touch element.
 22. The device of claim 18,said processor to activate said function in response to the user liftingthe user's finger from a touch selectable element.
 23. The device ofclaim 18, said processor to indicate which elements displayed on thetouch screen are touch selectable elements in response to a user inputcommand.
 24. The device of claim 23, said processor to indicate whichelements are touch selectable in response to a user input command,including touching a region of the touch panel that is blank.
 25. Thedevice of claim 24, said processor to indicate some of the touchselectable elements, but not all of the touch selectable elements, inresponse to the user input.
 26. The device of claim 25, said system toindicate touch selectable elements aligned with a touch panel.